Gay Club Murder Case State's Witness Nabbed

Man whose testimony is crucial in the Barnoar double murder case was caught in Tel Aviv.

By Gil Ronen

First Publish: 6/22/2013, 9:06 PM

The state's witness in the Barnoar gay club murder case has been caught, a few days after he escaped from police custody. He had been hiding out in a central Tel Aviv apartment.

Police raided the apartment, on Yitzhak Sadeh street, based upon prior intelligence. They detained two suspects in harboring the witness.

The witness is being interrogated on suspicion of breaking the state's witness agreement he had signed.

The witness had told Channel 2 in an interview that he had escaped because his emotional state was bad, “in order to clear my head, because I couldn't stand the pressure.”

He added that he has no intention of going back on his agreement and that he is not under pressure from criminal elements or from the police.

A gunman entered the Barnoar on August 1, 2009, and shot more than a dozen of the people there, most of them homosexual youths. Two of the casualties died and two others were premanently crippled.

Leaders from the liberal politcal stream accused religious anti-homosexual sentiment for creating an atmosphere that led to what they said was a "hate crime" against homosexuals. However, police now say that the murderous attack was revenge for the alleged homosexual rape of a youth by the club's director, Shaul Ganon.

Ganon will not be charged in the rape, and Israeli media has turned him into a celebrity of sorts, despite the grave suspicions against him.